Cry Me a River |✔️

Chapter 32- Curiosity Killed the Cat

^^ Emotional River ^^

"For if evil cannot prevail against fate, what hope is there for the good?"
      -Mario Puzo

Chapter 32

River's POV

A cold sweat ran down my shoulders, taking with it all the warmth in my body as I stood shivering and shaking as a newborn fawn beneath the dark eyes of my predator. My eyes didn't waver, I wouldn't allow them as I stared, wide-eyed.

He seemed amused, eyes specked in wicked humor as a tight smirk ran across his face. The men he had been speaking to watched, crossed armed as if allowing him to take charge as he backed me against a nearby wall and grinned like one would a caught rabbit. The scarred-faced man from earlier stood, arms crossed like the rest, watching me with an expression I couldn't quite decipher.

He wasn't amused like the rest, no. He eyes seemed rather vacant as he stared blankly, as if none of this bothered him in the least, into the distance. As if, slightly bored. It was then I realized there was a small boy within the group of broad men. He stood, unwavering like the rest with a look of disapproval as he watched the dark-eyed man cornering me. His eyes turned from the man and set on me and it was then I gasped.

His eyes were two different colors.

One was swirled a deep blue, as dark and unlit as the evening sky. The other was as bright as the other was dark, a light, warm brown with flecks of gold surrounding his pupil in a rain of gold and sparks.

So strange. So foreign...yet, so beautiful.

His eyes widened and it was then I realized I had said that out loud. I turned away, an embarrassing pink filling my cheeks as my cheek rested against the hard wall, feeling the revolting scent of the vulgar man's breath sweep across my cheek.

I held my breath, uncertain what to do as the porcine man loomed above me, his glare cutting into my skin as a blade does its fateful victim.

Running didn't seem to be an option anymore, what with all the eyes focused on me.

I shouldn't have strayed.

My head filled with endless possibilities but each led to more hopeless resolutions than the last.

"What do you plan on doing with the boy?" I turned my head, locking eyes with a mismatched pair.

The man above me pivoted his head, eyes narrowing as they landed on the small boy.

"Why, Parish? Hoping to get a piece?"

The boy remained silent, eyes doing all the talking he needed as they widened and shone with such a fierce radiance that even I shivered.

The man lifted his hands from the wall, lifting them in mock defeat as he let out a shaky breath, "got it, he's all yours."

The boy nodded as he stepped forward, feet making tap-like ecos. His eyes remained on mine, never once wavering. I felt a shiver run down my spine. It was foolish of me to be frightful, he was but a young child but the aura that emitted from his small form was more alarming than the devil himself.

"What's your name?" The young boy spoke as his eyes raked over my shaking form.

"R-River," I stuttered.

"Hmm," his eyes ran up my stomach to my eyes, "why so panicky, River?"

Being manhandled and pushed against cold, hard stone could do that to someone.

A small, trace of a smirk briefly flashed against his stone-like face. My eyes widened.

I hadn't said that one out loud had I?